DESIGN CHOICE: TETLEY TEA BAG

It’s not often you’ll hear me say ’I wish I’d done that’ but I’ll

confess to public adoration of Tetley’s new drawstring tea bag.

’Tea bag? All those great products, corporate identities and packaging

designs to choose from and he chooses a tea bag!’

Ah, but wait until you’ve tried it. Because I guarantee that you will

agree with me: this is first-class packaging innovation.

So, what does it do? Well, apart from making a great tasting cup of tea,

it makes it easier, simpler and fuss-free. Think about how you make tea

at home and in the office. Like 70% of consumers (according to Research

International), you won’t make a pot. Instead, you will boil the kettle,

put a tea bag in the cup, add the water and scoop out the tea bag when

it looks right. The result? Drips, spills and, in my view, not a good

cuppa - it’s the tea leaves in the centre of the bag that give tea its

flavour and these tend to stay left in the bag through the

scooping-disposal method. Not anymore.

With Tetley’s new bag, you do all the usual stuff, but when the tea

looks good, you go for the drawstrings at the neck of the bag. Pulling

them in opposite directions squeezes out the tea, giving you a great cup

and a bag that is drip-free and easy to dispose of.

It’s such an obvious solution to an everyday chore that you can’t

believe it’s not been done before. Tetley is the UK’s number one tea bag

brand with value sales of pounds 111m (ACNielsen, October 4 1997).

They have a tradition of innovation; they launched the first tea bag in

1957 and the round tea bag in 1989. And here they are again, with the

drawstring bag, reinforcing their commitment to the customer. Great

brands listen to what people want and respond.

My only thought is that they could have been more inventive with the

name. ’Drawstring’ needs to be written on the pack, but something

squeezy would feel right - it would reflect the friendly and warm values

we associate with the Tetley tea folk.

Client: Tetley GB

Designer: In-house

Launch date: September 1997

This article was first published on Marketing